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(Hardcover)
They come to Omaha by the tens of thousands, flocking to an annual meeting that has become legendary for investors, businesspeople, and fans of one of the most savvy capitalists on the planet. They come to eat steak, buy furniture at a discount, and bask in the brilliance of value investor extraordinaire, Warren Buffet.
Hedge fund founder, financial blogger, and professional skeptic Jeff Matthews got his own highly-coveted ticket to the Berkshire Hathaway meeting held only for shareholders and their guests--and proceeded to post reports on his blog, offering tempting glimpses into the much-discussed meeting. Now Matthews delivers a full-length account of his adventures at this infamous financial hoedown. In addition to offering a thoroughly entertaining first-hand account of Berkshire Hathaway's meeting, he answers questions investor's are asking, including:
Matthews also applies his financial acumen to harvesting potent lessons from his experiences that you can use as you survey the investment field, from finding how the world’s greatest investor evaluates not only businesses but the people who run them, to the importance of “just readingand thinking” and the value of having a smart, cynical partner. With the dispatches from this exclusive financial carnival, Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett's Omaha puts you at the forefront of an investor's dream come true.
More Reviews and RecommendationsJeff Matthews founded Ram Partners, LP, a hedge fund based in Greenwich, CT, in 1994. His distinctive financial blog, Jeff Matthews Is Not Making This Up, is regularly featured in the Wall Street Journal’s blog roll and has a loyal following among Wall Street analysts, traders, and portfolio managers, as well as investors around the world.
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July 29, 2009: Hedge fund expert Jeff Matthews is one of the "Omaha pilgrims" who can't wait to attend Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting each May. He sees Berkshire Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett as "John, Paul, George and Ringo, all rolled into one." Buffett and his partner, Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, give everyone a good time at the "Warren and Charlie Show." Usually the opener is a cartoon depicting the two men in some goofy escapade. Buffett plays the ukulele (on video). Board member Bill Gates signs autographs. Singer Jimmy Buffett (no relation) often entertains. The stockholders love everything about Berkshire, as well they should. A person who put $10,000 into its stock when Buffett took it over in the mid-1960s saw that investment reach $84 million at its peak, thanks to Buffett's prowess. getAbstract suggests that - if you can't attend the wonderfully kitschy annual shareholders' meeting (first requirement: pay tens of thousands of dollars for a single share of stock) - the next best thing is to read Matthews's book. Just learning how Buffett selects stocks would be worth the book's cost even if it weren't fun to read. And it is.
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December 11, 2008: Jeff Matthews spins an interesting tale using his two trips to Berkshire Hathaway annual meetings as bookends. He is an intelligent and insightful writer, and he uses his long years of experience as both a financial analyst for Merrill Lynch and as a hedge fund manager to help the reader to peer behind the curtain at Warren and Charlie's yearly version of the "Electric Koolaid Acid Test" for capitalists.